Cathryn Parry - Out of His League

Catch her if he can…

Dr. Elizabeth LaValley’s life works just fine, thank you very much. She’s a successful anesthesiologist, and she’s put the chaos of her youth and family behind her. When hottie pitcher Jon Farell shows up in her hospital, she’s the only one who doesn’t fawn over him. Sure, she feels the heat between them, but being alone is safe and predictable. She didn’t get where she is by taking risks.

Jon can’t get the beautiful doctor out of his head. His talents on the field have always been enough for any woman. But if he’s going to win Elizabeth’s heart, he’ll have to offer her much more than a wicked curveball.…

Jon smiled slightly, gazing at her. Look at me, he willed her.

She glanced at him, then blinked, startled, and went back to staring at her screen. “I’m sorry,” the doctor said in a low voice. “You’re obviously someone famous, and I’m making you uncomfortable….” Blood seemed to drain from her face.

Usually, he would interject, reassure her and make her comfortable, but…he was genuinely interested in hearing what she had to say. And he got the feeling she didn’t speak her mind very often to people—preferring to keep things to herself.

“I’ve…had a bad morning,” she continued, still not looking at him. “I just got some…difficult news. If you’d like, I’ll have another anesthesiologist called in to assist with your surgery. But I assure you, I’m very capable at what I do, and once I’m with the rest of the team, I will be fine—”

“I want you,” he blurted.

She blinked at him. Her eyes lingered on his, then traveled the length of him very quickly, up and down. She swallowed. “Why?” she asked.

Dear Reader,

Where I grew up in New England, following baseball was an important tradition spanning the generations. As a child, I remember visiting Boston’s Fenway Park on “Family Day,” a baseball glove in hand in case any errant foul balls came our way. During summertime, the game was always on the radio or television in our homes. And all the kids in the neighborhood knew the name and uniform number of every player.

This book’s hero is one such player. Everyone loves Jon Farell, a left-handed pitcher for the New England Clippers. A local guy, he wants nothing more than to be re-signed to his team in the big leagues, but a medical issue and a clubhouse scandal threaten his future.

When Jon performs community service at the cancer hospital where he was treated, he falls for the one woman in Boston who has no idea who he is. Dr. Elizabeth LaValley has good reasons for being cautious, as her introverted world is sent into upheaval when she’s temporarily assigned responsibility for the care of her eight-year-old nephew, a cancer survivor.

But Jon, the extroverted, likable pro baseball player, is determined to bring Elizabeth out of her shell. And this man that her nephew adores is the one man that prickly, privacy-minded Elizabeth can’t seem to scare away…and she’s not sure that she really wants to.

This is a story about opposites attracting and, most of all, about the joy and power of falling in love. I hope you enjoy Elizabeth and Jon’s story.

All the best,

Cathryn Parry

Out of His League

Cathryn Parry

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cathryn Parry is a lifelong baseball fan. She also loved playing first base on her childhood softball team, coached by her mom. Today she lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Lou, and her neighbor’s cat, Otis. When she’s not writing romance, she enjoys figure skating, plans as many vacations as possible and pursues her genealogy hobby. Please visit her website at www.cathrynparry.com.

For Lou. Thanks for the inspiration, the meals and all the love!

Thanks also to Karen Reid for your help in making this story the best it could be!

And to my three brothers—baseball players all—for the many games of catch, pitch-back fun and pickup games in our sandy backyard. I’ll be forever grateful that you taught me how to not throw like a girl.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

WHEN DR. ELIZABETH LAVALLEY approached the elevator bank on the third floor of her Boston hospital, a crowd milled in front of the nurse’s station. Her department was uncharacteristically buzzing.

“Somebody famous,” she heard an aide say. Instead of joining the mix, Elizabeth skirted the chaos and quickly stepped inside the elevator, heading in the other direction.

Privacy and peace, that’s what Elizabeth craved. Outside, the city was waking.

She cut across the hospital complex until she came to a red-painted stripe that ran along the sidewalk. Boston’s famous Freedom Trail. Appropriate, because this was what Elizabeth’s job meant to her: freedom. An escape from the turmoil she’d grown up in.

But that was behind her. She’d worked hard for the life she led now, and she would do anything to keep it.

Her surgical scrubs fluttered in the slight breeze. A half hour before the first surgery in her morning shift, it was a sunny, blue-sky, early October day. She strode, focused, down the red-painted line, more crowded with people than usual. A cruise ship was docked in the harbor—likely one of the fall “foliage” itineraries that went from New York up to Canada, though it was early for the peak of the autumn leaves’ spectacular color. Still, it seemed passengers and crew members from around the world were crowded into town today.

Maybe someday she would take one of those cruises, albeit to Rome, Greece or Turkey, where she could focus on her love of archaeology and antiquity. Surely there would be a way to find a single berth and keep herself sequestered.

Maybe, if she were bold and asked him, Albert would go with her.... But on second thought, Albert didn’t like vacations. And he certainly didn’t share her curiosity for ancient civilizations. A seminar on the latest techniques for inserting prosthetic heart valves, perhaps.

But that was the kind of man she preferred. A safe man, one who didn’t push her from her comfort zone, question her or make demands on her time. Really, she only wanted to be left alone. She was independent, and she was...not understandable to the world at large. Only a man who lived in her world—this world, not the world of her past—could possibly understand.

She stepped aside as she saw a man, a cruise ship passenger—judging by his tote bag that said SS Holland—eye her, and then his camera. Even though he smiled at her, obviously intending to ask her to take a photo of him, she tightened her grip on the bag in her hand and drilled her gaze into the pavement as she walked away, faster now.

She did feel a twinge of guilt, because she wasn’t a rude person at heart. But people didn’t always understand that. She was awkward at small talk. Someone else would be a much better photo-taker for the man than she would ever be.

She hastened around the corner, out of the tourist area and back to her hospital. Just a small escape, a short bit of exercise before her workday in the operating room, where she’d be sitting hunched over her equipment for hours straight. She had a full morning and afternoon of procedures—typically three to four scheduled surgeries, as well as whatever emergency situations came their way. She would be busy, focused and absorbed in her job—just the way she liked it.